"One remarkable aspect of visual recognition is that humans are able to recognize the meaning (or "gist", for a review, Oliva, 2005) of complex visual scenes within 1/20 of a second, independently of the quantity of objects in the image."
-Computational Visual Cognition Laboratory at MIT

basketball_team.jpg
(click here for more info about this image)


Why use visuals to support learning in education?
WestEd has a great rationale online as well as resources, in Using Technology to Support Diverse Learners




What visual media can I use in the classroom?
  • Images you or your students take (if publishing, have a media release)
  • Images available to you to use by permission of the owner
  • Images available through a Creative Commons license


Copyright
Creative Commons - read more about the licensing that allows content owners to make their work available on the internet. Works can be licensed for commercial and non commercial purposes.

The U.S. Copyright office has a quick reference on fair use as well as an In depth publication, Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians (PDF)



Students and educators should not simply "grab" images from Google; locating and using appropriate sources and the ethical use of media should be modeled!

Locating photographs and visuals for educational use
  • flickrSearch for Creative Commons licensed products
    • Enter a term in the flickr search box, click search, then click on the "Advanced Search" link, scroll and select "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content"
  • Google Images- Search for images "labeled for reuse"
    • Enter a term in the google search box, then click on gear in the right corner, and select the "Advanced Search" link, look for the drop down field for "Usage Rights" and select "Labeled for reuse"; click the Google Search button to complete your search
    • Google also hosts the LIFE magazine photo archive
  • Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog - searchable and rich collection of historical visuals
  • morgueFile has free images for commercial and noncommerical purposes
  • National Education Network has an extensive gallery available
  • Stock.xchnghas both free and for-purchase images. Registration is required. Note the terms of use of each item. Individuals may upload content to the site and add terms.
  • stockvault - free stock photos and images for personal, educational and non-commercial use
  • WorldImages - over 80,000 images free for non-profit educational use

Whenever an image is going to be used, even when licensed under a Creative Commons license or an image available for educational use, credit should be given to the original owner.

Clipart Sources



Image editors - in addition to editing, note the special effects!



Web 2.0 creative environments to use your visuals to create a product
  • animoto - create videos quickly and easily out of visuals
  • Blabberize - upload the photo, identify the mouth, add an audio track
  • Fotobabble - allows you to add a sound file to a photo but no moving mouth
  • Google Maps- add photos to your own maps
  • Glogster - create multimedia posters
  • Pikistrips - create your own comic strips/books
  • Pikikids - create your own comic strips/books
  • Prezi- instead of a powerpoint, older students can create a prezi
  • Storybirdis a collaborative storytelling environment as is StoryMash
  • Tikatok - create books
  • Toondoo - comic strip generator, use your own photos in the ImagineR
  • Voicethread - create a slideshow and invite others to comment

In addition, there are software that may be available to you at your school, such as PhotoStory, the iLife Suite, etc.
Here is a wiki page outlining a senior Language Arts Project using such software tools.



In the classroom:
  • Visualization of vocabulary
  • Visualize concepts, ideas
  • Visualize a text
  • Writing prompt
  • Digital Storytelling